Strikeforce was welcomed to the promotional battlefield Thursday
when
UFC President Dana White publicly attacked the rival promotion
for the first time following a pre-fight news conference for UFC
101 in Philadelphia.

White, who has praised the San Jose-based organization’s efforts on
numerous occasions, criticized Strikeforce for its decision to sign
No. 1-ranked heavyweight Fedor
Emelianenko after White’s previous negotiations fizzled with
the Russian and his management and promotional team M-1 Global.

Emelianenko will debut under the Strikeforce banner on premium-pay
subscription channel Showtime this fall. He is contracted for three
fights.

“He’ll put them out of business,” White said. “They have no money.
These guys have no money and they have no distribution. Four
f---king people watch Showtime.”

White also referred to Strikeforce as “Strikefarce.”

“Of course he’s going to say that. He’s a promoter,” said Coker
during a teleconference call Thursday discussing the major signing.
“He’s going to go on and say what he’s going to say, but we’ve been
in business a long time and I think we know how to operate a
business and forged a relationship with Ken (Hershman) and Showtime
and M-1. I feel confident that we’re going to have some great big
shows with Fedor.”

Coker, who recently praised White and the UFC for “saving” MMA in
North America, had told Sherdog.com on Tuesday that he believed his
company’s acquisition of Emelianenko wouldn’t spark hostility
between the two outlets.

White’s comments on Thursday suggested otherwise, though Coker
seemed ready for what many believed to be inevitable.

It is unclear what moves, if any, were made by the UFC to secure
the 23-year-old fighter after Affliction signed over its contracts
to the UFC.

White said he was unsure if his company had issued a cease and
desist letter to Strikeforce and M-1 to try and stop the bout now
scheduled for their co-promoted Aug. 15 event.

“Maybe we did,” said White. “I honestly don’t know. I’d tell you if
I knew.”

White added that the UFC would be interested in the former Dream
champion if he wasn’t under contract elsewhere.

However, Coker announced last week that he’d signed Mousasi to a
three-fight contract “a while ago.” Coker told Sherdog.com Tuesday
that Affliction had only a bout agreement in place with the
Armenian-born fighter for the Sobral bout.

“There has never been any side negotiations about (Mousasi’s)
contract,” said M-1 rep Apy Echteld, who had been designated to
speak on the controversy during the call. “I spoke to (UFC
matchmaker) Joe Silva about it last night for the first time, and
they said the only thing they should try to do or should do is
match the contract that Affliction had with Mousasi.”

Echteld said there had been “some contact in the past” with the UFC
and stated that the UFC had “tried to stop” the bout in
Strikeforce, but that Mousasi had already signed into a contract
that he is “happy with.”

Echteld said he was not sure on what grounds the UFC was making its
claim to stop the bout from happening on Aug. 15.

“I really don’t know,” said Echteld. “Perhaps they wanted Mousasi
in a cheap and easy way.”

White’s accusation cast doubt on M-1’s dealings with Mousasi, but
also raised questions regarding how much control Emelianenko
actually has over his own career. The usually stoic fighter
defended his and M-1’s stance during the call Thursday.

“I have the full control of the contracts and my career as well,
and I get all the time financial reports and all contracts and all
important issues are being discussed with me, and everything that I
don’t like Vadim (Finkelstein) tries to stand for,” said
Emelianenko through a translator. “I need to tell you I have
complete control of everything that’s going on.”

Emelianenko was also skeptical of the UFC’s practices.

“From my viewpoint, the UFC does not have the proper attitude
towards fighters,” said Emelianenko. “They don’t consider fighters
to be normal people, human beings. What I think (is) that the UFC’s
attitude towards the fighters is not the correct one and I don’t
like their policy, which appears to be (a) really forced one,
because the offer which we got was one kind, then on the Internet
they published (an) absolutely different offer. The offer that we
got from them was really miserable.”

Vadim Finkelstein, M-1 Global’s president, also had some stern
words for the White and the UFC.

“I wonder whom does Dana White considers to be the best fighters?
The fighters that have 4-1 records?” asked Finkelstein, referring
to UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. “Maybe this is the
fighter which became the product of the great PR machine of the
UFC. Brett Rogers is a much better opponent for Fedor and also
should be very interesting for fans as well, because he has 10
fights and not one loss.”

Finkelstein said the UFC had just as much to gain from the elusive
signing as Emelianenko and M-1 did.

“Fedor’s name outside of the U.S. is much bigger than the name of
the UFC,” he said. If Fedor comes to the UFC, he’ll make the UFC
famous outside of the U.S.”

Other notes:

• Coker said the promotion’s first pay-per-view event is “probably
six to nine months away.”

• Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem is expected to
defend his title this fall.

• On an event in Japan: “The deal with Dream is really an
independent deal than this deal (with M-1), but we’ll definitely
have some conversations with everyone involved to see if it makes
sense,” said Coker.

• On Showtime’s involvement with the acquisition of Emelianenko:
“We were involved enough to lend support and make sure that
everyone understood how important we felt this was and how valuable
we felt that Fedor and M-1 was. Beyond that, I’m not going to get
into how involved we were,” said Ken Hershman, Showtime Sports
Senior Vice President.

• Coker and Showtime have discussed holding a multi-night grand
prix tournament format, but no immediate plans have been made.
(Coker had previously announced 135- and 145-pound women’s
tournaments will begin in November.)

This article was updated 8:59 p.m. EST with additional
information and comments from M-1 and Fedor. The word "conflict"
was corrected to "contact in the past" at 1:52 p.m. EST on
Friday.